Are house-elves _slaves,... House vs house

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 102789

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "meriaugust" <meriaugust at y...>
wrote:
> 
> Meri now: 
> I would say that house elves seem to count as part of the 
> house they serve. So that makes them a piece of property or chatell. 
> If a WW family bought an old school manor, it would certainly come 
> with the anemnities: breakfast nook, broom cupboard, owelry and 
> house elf. Whether or not house elves can be "sold seperately" is 
> yet to be seen. 
> 
> Meri - 

asian_lovr2:

When we say that a house-elf is bound to a house, we need to make a
distinction between the house of Black, and the House of Black, for
example. The house of Black is the building at 12 Grimmauld Place; the
House of Black is... "a family line including ancestors and
descendants, especially a royal or noble family, as in the House of
Orange". (American Heritage CD_ROM Dictionary 3rd Edition)

Kreacher is bound to the family line of Black, but with Sirius's
death, the direct line of decendancy has been broken; there is no more
downward House of Black. 

However, there is still a 'side-ways' House of Black. There are no
direct decendants, but there are decendants 'one removed'. In
otherwords, Sirius has three living first cousins, unfortunately, none
of them are named 'Black'. They are Malfoy, Tonks, and LeStrange.

With inheritance issues like Sirius's, the law usually looks for the
oldest and nearest MALE relative. Based on the knowledge we have, the
oldest and nearest Male relative is Draco Malfoy.

I don't want to get into the Black Estate Inheritance issue as it has
been discussed several times. I just want to remind people that when
the books says an elf is bound to a house, that's probably House with
a capital 'H'. 

Just a thought.

Steve B.